When items are purchased or services are rendered, a consumer is typically provided a receipt. The receipt serves as a written record of the amount and nature of a transaction. For tax and/or budgetary reasons, receipts are often collected and each amount categorized according to the purpose. The receipts may be submitted as part of an expense report seeking reimbursement for business-related expenses. Further, the receipts may be used as a basis for completing and filing tax forms seeking deductions to either personal or business tax returns. Failure to timely submit and/or retain receipts related to financial transactions can result in financial loss and/or penalties.
Businesses tend to have stringent receipt collection procedures. Procedures exist to allow a business to properly document expenses associated with business-related purposes, which are often tax deductible and/or closely monitored budget categories. Unfortunately, keeping track of and sufficiently categorizing all receipts is not always a simple task. Receipts may be lost, misplaced, destroyed, or otherwise inaccessible. Moreover, even when receipts are accessible, the category for the receipt and other supporting information may be misplaced, illegible, forgotten, or otherwise lost.
Once receipts are presented with a business expense report, such reports are kept to substantiate claims when making financial reports to government and other agencies. The paper reports (and supporting documents), when combined with all other retained documents, require a large amount of storage space or some form of electronic document management. The paper reports are accessible only at the location stored in substantially the same form submitted and can be susceptible to destruction or loss.
In today's active society, most consumers own a mobile device (e.g., a mobile phone, personal digital assistant, a multimedia device, a compact computer, or other mobile electronic device) and carry the mobile device along with them throughout the day. Further, the features and interface provided by the mobile device are relatively simplistic in design and functionality.